Rosalind Franklin. Does the name ring a bell? Probably not, but she is being remembered today for her work in the field of science and DNA. Google Doodle has chosen to honor Ms. Franklin in hopes that she may get the recognition she never received.

Photo courtesy of Google

Rosalind Franklin: A Forgotten Pioneer

Franklin was born in 1920, growing up in London, England where she demonstrated a love for science at a young age. She went on to study chemistry and subsequently worked as a research assistant. By 1942, she was learning x-ray diffraction to examine the structure of molecules- which was the method she used to take the infamous Photo 51 of DNA. After her death in 1958 her achievements lived on, but her name did not.

Photo 51

In 1952, Rosalind Franklin took the now-famous x-ray photo of DNA’s double helix structure that was critical in beginning to understand human life. As mentioned, the technique she used was x-ray diffraction. Three other scientists, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and James Watson published and used her image, giving her only a slight nod of recognition.

Others are Credited

Although Franklin photographed the DNA that cracked the code to DNA’s double helix structure, she was never given the credit for her work. Instead, Crick, Wilkins and Watson are the ones who reaped the benefits they would not have been given without Franklin’s work. In fact, they won a 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Franklin apparently never protested their claims, as it was uncommon at the time for women to be acknowledged for their intelligence.

Rosalind Franklin would have turned 93 today. Unfortunately, Nobel Prizes are not awarded after death. While she did not receive the recognition she deserved at the time of her discovery, we greatly appreciate her work and intelligence in the field of DNA. For DNA testing information, contact Test Smartly Labs.